by Jan Simson

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Day: May 2, 2012

I’ve had a fair amount of conversations with atheists as well as religious christians. There always seems to be an argument between the two. The christians want to convince atheists that God exists, and the atheists want to make the christians see that it’s all a big fairytale. One reoccurring theme that I noticed is that there’s a lot of hate between the two. It’s rare that you find an atheist who loves christians, or a christian who really loves atheists. They’re always trying to prove something to the other, which is kinda pointless, because you can’t exactly prove God does or doesn’t exist. Well, I mean, you can through prophetic testimonies and miracles, but satanists can almost always do the same things as christians. And if you can’t discern between God and Satan, then you’re probably a very confused individual.

Christians play up the “God’s love” aspect a lot. Too much, actually, because then they start to forget the other aspects of God. He isn’t just the “lamb”, he’s also the “lion”. He also gets upset, like a normal father would. If your own kid started running amok, killing other kids while using the dreaded F-word in every sentence, you’d probably say, “Hey. The fuck, man?” and tell him not to be so impolite in the future. Killing other kids while swearing isn’t necessarily a respectful deed. Atheists play up the “God’s wrath” aspect a lot. “Well if he’s such a good God, then why did the Holocaust happen?” Stuff like that. And then the christians get all offended like, “Dude, God didn’t just let that happen. Shit happens, you know?” and then the atheists say, “But he’s omniscient and omnipotent and omieverything, so why didn’t he stop it?” and then the christians say stuff like, “Well because his people weren’t obedient to him, so he had to punish them somehow,” and that starts the whole argument loop over again. Arguing for the sake of arguing.

I know that everybody is looking for an answer to the many questions in life, so christians turn to the Bible and God, and atheists turn to science and reason. Both have some answers, but without combining the two, more questions will emerge. Really, it’s all about asking the right questions in the first place. For example, “Why is the world so screwed up?” is not the right question. “What can we do to fix this screwed up world?” would be the right question.

Something I noticed is that there’s so much common ground between the two, but neither of them are willing to invoke a ceasefire because christians feel the need to evangelize to atheists, and atheists feel the need to say “Bullshit, bro.” We as humans need three things: A home, to be loved and accepted, and a life mission. That’s it. “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” Mahatma Gandhi said that. Both of them can learn from each other. Most of them, however, don’t really want to. It’s probably just a pride thing. “I’m right, you’re wrong, and this is why.” We’re always waging war while praying for world peace. We’re funny creatures, aren’t we.